BY PANOS PREVEDOUROS PHD – The March 5, 2011 issue of The Economist states that USA’s debt to China at the end of 2010 in the form of U.S. Treasury notes was 30% higher than had been thought. China holds $1.19 Trillion in U.S. Treasury notes and Japan holds $882 Billion of the same.
So this form of debt of the USA to China and Japan comes to $2,072,000,000,000.
Let’s try to get a handle on this. The U.S. has about 140 million taxpayers (indeed, less than half of the population files for federal taxes) and 20% of them pay minimal amounts. That leaves about 100 million taxpayers holding the bag.
So what’s your share? $20,720!
The average taxpayer owes China and Japan about $21,000. Your rate will vary depending on your income: If you make $50,000 you pay roughly 15% of that to the IRS, but if you make $200,000 you pay 30% of that to the IRS.
We got ourselves into a deep (and deepening) hole. There is one way to lessen this: Devalue the dollar to ½ its current worth. In this way, our average taxpayer debt to China and Japan becomes about $10,000.
Unfortunately at the same time everything at Walmart and at the gas pump doubles in price. Overnight gas goes from $4 to $8 per gallon. And a large portion of the population becomes impoverished.
Twenty plus years of tax and spend and entitlements will come full circle. Entitlements are the wrong way to pull people out of poverty. They ballooned the national and local debts. And the poor will pay the heaviest price no matter how hard “socially minded” decision makes have tried to help them.